Monthly Archives - January 2020

ADB gets approval to raise GH¢127 million from GAT

The Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) has announced that it has received approval to issue in excess of 39 million ordinary shares to the Ghana Amalgamated Trust  (GAT) to raise GH¢127 million in order to help meet its minimum capital requirement. This is in fulfillment of ADB’s recapitalization of four hundred million cedis required of commercial banks by the Bank of...

Non-performing loans hit GH¢7.2bn in October 2019

The total stock of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) continues to increase as it hit GH¢7.19 billion in October 2019 from GH¢7.14 billion in October 2018. Despite this increase in the nominal numbers, the central bank believes that higher growth in total loans contributed to a lower NPL ratio of 17.3 per cent from 20.1 for the same comparative period in 2018 The...

Apex Bank secures 8 million dollars to roll out agency banking

The ARB Apex Bank has secured eight  million dollars in grant from the World Bank to roll out agency banking operations to expand rural and community banking. The agency banking module is expected to rope in more than 1,000 agents across the country, offering a host of benefits to boost rural and community banks (RCBs) operations. Starting next year, the project...

Banks post GHS2.83 billion profit as reforms take effect

The country’s banking sector is churning out more profit following the regulator’s decision to introduce a number of reforms to strengthen the sector. The Bank of Ghana’s latest banking sector report revealed that as of October 2019, banks in the country made a total profit of GHS2.83 billion which was a 45.3 percent increase in the figure recorded same period...

BoG Touts Financial Sector Clean-Up

THE CENTRAL Bank has reiterated that the benefits of the financial sector clean up far exceeded any harm that may have been caused.Research Director at the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Philip Abradu-Otoo, who spoke on behalf of the Governor of BoG, at a forum organized by the Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG), recently in Ho, said the...

Crane Currency of USA printed GH¢200, GH¢100 notes

It has emerged that Crane Currency, a currency and security printing company in the United States of America (USA), printed the newly introduced GH¢200 and GH¢100 banknotes for the country. Information available to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS indicated that Crane Currency, which prides itself as being in the currency business for over 200 years, won the bid from the Bank of...

Banks must verify background of employees to curb rising fraud

The Head of the Financial Integrity Office at the Bank of Ghana, George Nkrumah, is urging financial institutions to ensure strict compliance with employee background checks as a way of minimizing fraud perpetuated by employees. “When you are employing, you have to do Know Your Employee (KYE ). Know the person you are recruiting. Make sure you do a verification...

Sanitising the banking sector important for building confidence

The step by the Government to clean up the financial sector could generate negative reactions at the beginning; but result in confidence in the sector, subsequently, Mr Hakim Ouzzani, the Managing Director of Societe Generale (SG) Ghana has said. The reforms, he said, would strengthen the sector and instill more hope and trust in the public for the sector to...

BoG directs banks to build profile of borrowers

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has directed all banks to develop and build credit profiles of their customers to help the banks price their loans appropriately. The measure is aimed at deepening transparency in the determination of the lending rates of banks to bring down interest charges on loans. It is also expected to provide borrowers with a more informed basis...

‘Cyber fraudsters keep targeting banking sector

Mr George Nkrumah, Head Anti-Money Laundering Office, Financial Stability Department, Bank of Ghana (BoG), has said over the past three years, Ghana had lost about US$200 Million to cyber-crime. The cyber fraudsters keep targeting the activities in the banking sector, he said, adding that neither would the security agencies relent in monitoring and forestalling their activities. Mr Nkrumah said financial institutions...